Rescuing Pabu
by Bramblerose4
Summary: A young Mako hears his brother shouting and a splash of water and races to save him. Pre-series brother time.


**Rescuing Pabu**

* * *

"Mako help!"

The familiar cry from his brother's lips made Mako roll out of the safety of the park bench he was sleeping under and towards the distressed sound.

"Bolin!" he yelled, his head whipped from side to side as he searched for the seven year old. "Bolin! Bolin, where are you?"

He heard a startled cry followed by a splash not far ahead of him.

"Oh, God, not the river." Mako thought and headed to the water. "Hold on Bolin, I'm coming," the boy promised, already stripping his shirt off of his thin body. Thankfully the park river didn't flow very fast, so if Bolin had fallen in Mako was pretty sure that he would be able to dive in and get his brother out before Bolin swallowed too much water. That was what he told himself anyway. He was fiddling with the tie on his pants when he reached the water's edge.

"Mako!" Bolin shouted his voice high in anguish.

Mako turned to see Bolin at the water's edge a small broken tree branch in his tiny hands. Bolin dropped the stick and raced to his brother, hugging him around the waist. "Mako! Quick! You need to save it!" he pleaded, tears streaming down his face. "I tried, but I just," he sniffed. "But I can't swim."

"Calm down Bo," Mako instructed, rubbing his brother's back like their mother used to. "Save what?"

"That!" Bolin said pointing to the river.

Mako squinted in the growing dark, his eyes staring into the rushing water. At first he saw nothing and then up popped as dark sack the same size as Bolin and bobbed around until it got snatched onto a low hanging branch on the other side of the river.

"Do you see it?" Bolin shouted tugging on his brother's pants.

"That? That's just someone's trash," Mako explained dismissing his younger brother's words with a wave of his hand. He placed his hand on Bolin's shoulders and tried to steer him away from the water but the little boy wiggled out of it and pointed to bag.

"No, it's not. There's an animal in there!" he insisted.

"Bolin-"

"I saw it! Before it went into the water. Please Mako, save it!"

Mako looked down at his little brother and knew there was no way he was going to remain dry tonight. He would either be drenched with Bolin's tears as the boy cried over the drifting sack or from diving into the park river.

Mako sighed. "Stay here," he ordered, thinking the sooner he showed Bolin what was in the bag the better.

Bolin looked up at his older brother his eyes shining with hope. "Okay!"

Mako nodded and took a deep breath and held it before he dove into the water. Every muscle in his body froze in complete shock. He ignored the stinging sensation in his limbs and he made his way to the surface. With long powerful strokes he swam to the other side and hauled himself out of the river. He jogged over the bag when he heard a loud snap and saw a long crack in the old branch. He was running out of time. The branch was going to break and the trash bag would be washed away from Republic City Park to the sea, lost forever.

Mako dropped to his knees in front the tree and lay on his stomach as he reached out for the bag. He grunted as he tried to yank the bag to him. It didn't move. It was wedged between two smaller branches and the water flowed faster here making it harder to remove. With a frustrated grunt Mako grabbed onto the branch and yanked it until the crack tore through the rest of the branch and it broke free with the bag still attached. Mako swung the dead tree branch to his side and jumped in surprise at the squeak that came from the bag.

"Well, I'll be…" he stated getting to his feet. He snapped off the two branches binding the bag to the tree and lightly poked the bag with his foot. There was movement inside followed by another squeak. "Bolin was right."

"Careful Maka!"

"Yeah, yeah" Mako replied and tucked the bag under his arm. He walked back upstream to where Bolin awaited him on the other side and took another breath before diving back into the water for the second time that night.

He emerged from the river and tossed the bag onto ground before pulling himself out. "You were right there is something in there." Mako said getting to his knees, with cold fingers the young fire bender opened the bag and was thrown onto his back in the grass as a red streak jumped out of it and attached itself to his face. Mako tried to scream but his mouth with full of wet fur. Grabbing the animal with both hands Mako pried it off his face and flung it away from him. The ferret twisted into the air and landed on its feet in the grass not far from Bolin.

"It's a fire ferret!" Bolin exclaimed with joy. "Who would what I throw away a ferret?" he asked slowly approaching it. "Oh isn't he the cutest thing? Poor little bear. We have to nurse him back to health," Bolin said getting to his hands and knees in front of the drenched fire ferret.

"Great, another mouth to feed," Mako said, pulling on his shirt over his head.

"He could have my food," Bolin offered and pulled out a half-eaten sweet bun out of his pocket. "Here," he held it out to the ferret and waited patiently as its nose twitched as it sniffed the offered food. "It's sweet bean; my favorite. You will like it," he promised and slowly set the bun down midway between himself and the scared animal.

The moment that Bolin moved away the ferret dashed forward and grabbed the offered food in both its paws and quickly stuffed the sweet bun into its mouth.

"It looks like it's his favorite, too," Bolin giggled and watched the ferret eat. When it had eaten the bun it turned towards Bolin and scurried up the smaller boy's legs and into his arms, searching for more food. "Ha, ha, stop that; it tickles." Bolin caught the ferret as it climbed into his pocket. "Hey buddy, come here," Bolin held the ferret an arm's length away from him. "Where's your family, huh? They must really be missing you."

The animal lifted its head and looked into Bolin's eyes and squeaked before it jumped into the younger brother's arms. "You don't have anyone looking after you? I'm going to take care of you from now on. And so will Mako." Both Bolin and the ferret faced each other before turning their heads in unison to Mako. "I know that he doesn't look so great right now, but Mako is the best when it comes to taking care of things. He is an amazing big brother. He can be your big brother too!"

Mako paused in putting on his shirt to look over at his brother and his new pet. Bolin smiled widely at him while the red animal tilted its head to the side to stare at him.

"Uh, thanks Bo," Mako said, pulling his shirt on.

"For what Mako?" Bolin asked, getting up clumsily from the ground cradling the ferret in his hands. The fire ferret purred sleepily and burrowed into the folds of Bolin's shirt.

Mako smiled at Bolin. "For being the coolest little brother a guy could have," he replied.

"Cool!" Bolin sang out loudly. "Maka said I'm cool!"

The fire ferret squeaked at the noise and fell out of Bolin's arms. It rolled on its side before jumping up to its feet.

"Bo, if you're going to keep him, you gotta be more careful." Mako explained, picking the ferret up gently by the back of the neck. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, we're keeping him!"

"Close enough," Mako chuckled and handed the animal back to his little brother. It wiggled out of Bolin's grip and ran up his arm to lie on his shoulders like a furry red scarf.

"So what are you going to call him?"

"Red."

"Red?" Mako asked. "You sure?"

"Oo, oo, I know I know." Bolin said, stopping in his tracks. "Pa-bu!"

Mako took a moment to think about it before looking into Bolin's large expectant face and smiled. "I like it."

"Yay!" Bolin shouted, his big grin turning into a yawn.

Mako placed his palm on top of Bolin's head. "Come on, Bo. Let's head back to the bench. We'll be able to get a few more hours of sleep before the park guards start their rounds."

* * *

I started writing this a few weeks ago but put it away to work on my other stories, but when I saw Bolin trying to give Pabu a bath I knew that I had to finish it. I know that this isn't canon compliant, but it is close enough and I couldn't get the image of Mako recusing Pabu because Bolin asked him to out of my mind.

Thank you for reading!


End file.
